As Friday’s news conference with Utah Jazz executives Ryan Smith, Danny Ainge, and Justin Zanik began, one of the first questions was about something notable Ainge — CEO of Jazz Basketball — said as last season wrapped up: that the team was “ready to go big game hunting.”
The offseason, in reality, was significantly short of big game. The Jazz made their draft picks, signed minor veterans, retained their current players, and otherwise laid low. So what happened?
“I should have worn my elk shirt,” Ainge quipped.
Then he asked the team’s general manager to answer the meat of the big game question.
“You guys have seen how things evolve in an offseason,” Zanik said. “In this organization, we are extremely aggressive with pursuing any and all means necessary to make this a championship-caliber roster. When those opportunities come up, we’re ready for it. There weren’t any.
“And so to sit there and not do anything, we decided that our plan was to completely throw our focus into our young guys and the best player on our roster in Lauri Markkanen.”
In short, the Jazz pushed their contention window forward this offseason.
That doesn’t mean that Markkanen’s extension wasn’t a significant item on the Jazz’s checklist. Given a 5-year, $238 million contract renegotiation and extension, the 27-year-old is now tied to Utah until the 2028-29 season. Furthermore, management believes that his contract wasn’t just about retaining someone of his talents, but that he can help develop the young players throughout the rest of the roster.
“Lauri helps our young players develop. He’s a developing leader,” Zanik said. “You can’t have just a bunch of young guys trying to raise themselves. I think you’ve heard the quote, ‘pups can’t raise pups.’”
The “pups” referred to above are the Jazz’s assortment of young players. Internally, they generally refer to seven players as part of the potential young core: third-year center Walker Kessler, second-year players Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, and Brice Sensabaugh, and incoming rookies Cody Williams, Isaiah Collier, and Kyle Filipowski.
Those players, though, will fight for minutes with established veterans. Collin Sexton had his best season last year, and comes into the year as clearly the Jazz’s second-best player. Jordan Clarkson and John Collins struggled, but have the veteran resumes to demand playing time. And the team has added three new established veterans — Patty Mills, Svi Mykhailiuk, and Drew Eubanks — who may want to find the court as well.
It’s a bit evocative of the Jazz’s conundrum the last two seasons: Should they fully focus on the development of the young players, or give the veterans their fair shot?
Zanik, though, believes the team is starting this year from a different place.
“I think what’s different this year is that we’re starting to build a really good depth base. They just happen to be really young. So instead of having three guys that are rookies, we have seven guys now under the age of 23,” Zanik said. “Our growth is going to come from developing our talent base so that we can win more games now and in the future. That doesn’t happen overnight — but what’s important about development is playing.”
That developmental task is assigned to head coach Will Hardy and his staff. Hardy, entering his third season, had the fifth year of his contract picked up by the team on Friday, tying the young coach to the team through the 2026-27 season. Given the Jazz’s youth, it may well take that long for the Jazz to rise through the rebuild and become a contending team again, but the Jazz’s staff believes Hardy is the right man for the job.
“It was a quick yes, it was pretty easy,” Ainge said of his decision to pick up Hardy’s option. “We love the direction he’s taking, we love the teammate he is. He’s really excited for this year with a chance to develop these young players.”
Smith was then asked how he feels about being owner of a club going through a rebuild — after all, some ownership groups don’t have the patience, instead prioritizing immediate winning.
“I looked around the league, and 90% plus (teams) have been homegrown. That’s the business we’re in. So we better get really good at it, and we also want as many shots as we can at it,” Smith said.
With no big game hunted this summer, there may be a shortage of big games for the Jazz this season. But Smith says he’s optimistic that they’re coming.
“I’m a competitive human. I think that going through and seeing how we’ve started and the decisions we’ve made are probably counterintuitive a little bit to how I want to start my tenure — but actually, I love it,” Smith continued. “I love working with these guys, and I’m totally bought in. If we want to win a championship, we’re going to have to do it our way, and I think we will. I’m 100% confident of that.”
